Phasis
Φᾶσις
Phasis (Φᾶσις), a river of Taprobane or Ceylon. It is clear from the statement of Ptolemy that it was on the N. side of the island; but like other rivers and places in that island, it is hardly possible now to identify it with any modern stream. Forbiger has conjectured that it is the same as the Aweríe. Lassen has supposed it to be the Ambá, in that portion of the island which was called Nagadwîpa. If this be so, it flowed into the sea a little to the N. of the narrow ledge of rocks which connects Ceylon with the mainland of Hindostán. Forbiger further supposes that this is the same river which Pliny calls Cydara in his account of the island of Taprobane (6.22. s. 24).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.